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Oh please not yet another sketchbook

I expect you to critique me.
I expect you to gangbang me with critique so hard that I'll be crying tears out of my NOSE.
If I'm not lying in a corner sobbing after the first post, you're not doing your job well enough.
I need some serious progress, it's only about a year or so until I start college, and... I really want to get into one. >>

Exams over

School's out and the hard times of exams are finally past tense.
I've hardly had time to draw at all, and I've been through some kind of artist's block... I hope it will disappear now when it's vacation.
Expect some paintings soon, as I've bought paint. I need to get down some hue and value studies, as well as anatomy studies.
But that's what vacation's for, isn't it?

Great start there! You seem to be good with figures, hands and overall proportions look right as well as faces (apart from the big eyes and pointy chins, heh). The skeleton drawing looks great too. I think the main problem in general I'm seeing is wonky perspective. It's clearest on the shadows of your item sketches but shows easily on the figures too - the sitting girl's feet seem to be on a different plane than her butt (the foot on our left is too high). I saw an excercise on the mentoring forums about filling a sheet with loads of 3d boxes, first in 1-point perspective, then 2-point and then bird or frog. It's boring but I tried it and seemed to give result pretty fast. Keep drawing those items from life too, good value practice.

Thanks a lot, smuli! You have NO IDEA how motivated I was after I read your post!
And of course, you're right. I'll practice loads!

Because of work I haven't been able to do as much practice as I would lately, but I've managed to fill a GAZILLION sheets of squares. Most of them got thrown away, and some are lost on the mess that is my room, but I grabbed a few to annoy all of you people who sees this.
Next week, draw shadows using perspective and real life objects using perspective! Hooray!
Also throwing in two watercolours I did. I wanted to try out watercolours, because... well... yeah. Because.

You're doing the right thing by drawing from life. :]
If you feel you need to practice/learn to draw body parts or whatever it is you're lacking in, spend your time drawing them and learning instead of being "bored". It'll help lots. ;D

Thanks, A La Bapsi! I will! *heart*
My biggest weakness is that I get demotivated fast... luckily, I have a goal to work towards!

I drew a cereal box and a matchbox today. I didn't add details or anything, just wanted you all to see the faulty lines. >>
I'll practice more tomorrow!
Also, in one of my 'bored' periods, I decided to take up on Bapsi's advise and practiced skeletal structure. I'll try to draw some big, detailed skeleton hands soon to get a better understanding of them, because I need to practice them.
And legs... hmm... sounds like a schedule.

try doing that perspective stuff freehand..
and get more confident with your lines.. try to get away from the sketchy thick lines.. your lines don't have to be perfect, but when you only give yourself one chance to do each line, you'll begin to improve with the few lines you get to use, and you'll learn to look better the first time.. i find i'm suggesting to everyone to do blind contours, they work wonders.

Great sketches you got and I really like the watercolor flower. Get yourself an anatomy book, draw as much from life as possible and look into Glenn Vilppu's Drawing DVD's they'll give you a great deal of information and speed up your learning curve!

You need to pick up a book about anatomy. But you dont really have to get a book. You can use google to find everything you need.
I also notice that you don't seem to know what you're doing when you draw that circle when making a head. It's like you do it because someone told you do and have no idea why.
I have no intention of explaining every aspect of guidelines and such and that's why we're telling you to go get some books or whatever on anatomy, They are everywhere some free some not.
Do not be frightened by reading whats in these books, I know some others as well as my self get really bored and turned down when i see several pages covered in nothing but text. But this text is gonna teach you more than any of the exercises in the following pages of any good book.

When you draw;
Think about mass and how it would look in 3D. How would an arm look if a person was scratching the back of his head? (look in a mirror)
What is underneath? You don't draw a skeleton to learn how to draw a skeleton you draw it so you can understand what is under all that flesh skin and clothes. When you draw any part of the body think of how the skeleton looks and how the muscles move around that area. (There is so much.. simply put get a nice 50or so page book on anatomy)

Hmm, perspective studies! Very, very good. We all need to that.
About the watercolour pieces, watch out for dirty colours. The green hair of the girl, for example, looks dirty and smudgy. Did you blend in some white in the hair's green colour? Because I do not recommend that. That will make the colour dim. Paint with clean colours! Instead of white (if you did use it), you could have blended in yellow to make the hair brighter.

Next, I would like to say something about the apple and the orange you painted in the first post. When you start the painting, first cover the canvas / paper with a base colour (de kaller det vel grunning på norsk, jeg vet ikke hva det heter på engelsk). That colour will shine through the painting you will add later, and prevents white areas around the objects. The way it is now, the colour of the table they are laying on is painted very hastily, and there are areas around the fruits that are almost free of paint.
I think a red colour, like the one you use on the table, would do a good base colour. Then when that is done, you paint the fruit over it. Just be careful so the fruit and the table don't have the same colour!

I sense that you like drawing characters. Continue with that! There is an endless world of possibilities when it comes to character design!

I haven't posted in such a long time... and suddenly I have so many comments! You guys have NO IDEA how motivated your posts make me, a billion thanks!

amarryth: I will! I've begun sketching buildings when I'm outside, to learn that darn perspective freehand. I'll also try to make myself more confident. Thanks for the advice! I draw blind contours every day now.

YuZa: Thanks a lot! I'll try to practice more anatomy... I've gotten my hands on the library's version of 'Anatomy Drawing School', and when I get my next paycheck I'll buy a copy myself.
Thanks for the link! You're right, he's very inspiring.

Pawkfox: I will! Next time I get my ass to the library I'll without doubt find anatomy textbooks! Thanks so much!

JaneM: Thanks! I need to practice colours a lot... well, nothing to do put just that, then? Practice. MOARRRR.
And yes, I love drawing characters. I hope to become a concept artist or illustrator one day. But then again, who of us doesn't?

I've been three weeks gone, visiting my beloved in Oslo. Haven't been much but sketching there... but I'll show some of the work I made before I left and when I got home. The last one isn't finished yet. Obviously.

Compared to my previous post, the self portrait of today look pretty goddamned awful. Was interrupted halfway through, and hastely shaded with the side of my monolith. GODDAMNED BAD IDEA. Learned that now. Try again tomorrow. Also, mental note: try finding a place with less retarded light sources.

I need to practice mixing paint. Might not look it, but I learned a lot from that session. Moar practeese plz.

Last, taking up on amarryth's advice. I try to learn myself confidence. I've been drawing and erasing and drawing the same drawing all over and erasing and drawing a new pose and erasing and so on and so fourth. On the same page. You can see that, I guess. I almost forgot to take this picture. >>
Well, it's drawn from a picture on the book "The Figure in Motion" by Thomas Easley. My naked-people-book. I have another one too, "Atlas of Foreshortening". Okay, I'll shut up now.
LES TEXT, MOAR PICTURZ

Real quick update here. Just showing that I am, in fact, doing something. >>
First one is me practicing confidence drawing items (again... drawing, then erasing and drawing again/something else), and the next is value practice.

I'll try scanning sketches from my tiiiiny sketchbook. The one I always keep in the pocket of my jacket. So we can all have a laugh at the shittyness.

Visited the city today and did some sketches. To practice, of course, but also to figure out my major weaknesses so I can ultimately DEFEAT THEM!!! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!

I learned that:
* I spend too much time looking at the drawing instead of the subjects
* I have a really hard time drawing fast
* That my lines still are shaky and unsure
* I spend too much time focusing on the eyes... this I solved quickly, though, by using the new way of drawing eyes. Just a line and block out the iris! Simple!
* Perspective still crap
* I really, really, really need to learn HOW TO SEE THINGS

Just one thing to do about this, eh? Practice!

Also the promised tiny-sketchbook-scans. I had a bulk of excuses ready, but excuses won't get me anywhere, so I'll let it be and practice instead.

First is some freehand perspective tryouts... didn't work out too well. |D'''
I really need to learn how to draw STRAIGHT LINES as well. I'll put it on my list of things to practice.
The others are a value study and confidence practice... besides that, I have also drawn people (of course).
I finally got my "Foundation painting" DVD, so I watched that today as well. It was awesome. And soon my bookstore will get the book I wanted...
*dreamy/geek/shot/dead*

MOAR artz. Real quickly some scans of some work I've done... just a self-portrait and some perspective. I think I'll start drawing cubes with holes and such in them now, since drawing just cubes is hardly practice at all.

Sorry that you can see through... the paper is really thin. But it works as practice and sketching paper, so it's good enough for me. 8D

More art, again. Just some doodles from school. I'm not submitting the blind contours or confidence practice... I do those every day before going to school.
(I almost fall asleep, though... I get up at 05:20.)
So, yes. Nothing more to say, really.
Except that I'll try to draw the same cube from many angles soon... even if my skill level isn't QUITE top-notch yet. But hey, challenges are what artists are all about, or something.

I'm impressed you've been actually drawing those 3d boxes. Good work there! Many of the ankles seem smaller than 90 degrees but it's an easy mistake to make when you have to fit two vanishing points on the same sheet. When you do life studies of blocky objects like the eraser and pencil sharpener, make sure you know where the horizon and vanishing points are before you draw a line. I like to start with sketching a bunch of random lines going towards them so that you get a grid to sketch the object in. Loomis has some good pages about how to fit figures in perspective here and later in the book.

smuli: *whacks head* d'uh! Of course, now I understand why they looked wrong! I forgot the 90 degrees rule! Thanks a lot! I'll try the grid tip tomorrow, it sounds really helpful. And thanks for the link! I'm still looking for a place to buy the Loomis books, but this will help tremendously in the meantime! A billion thanks!

I'm too lazy to scan anything, so I'll just show my painting practice. Practiced painting. Yes. And value. It's the same picture, but my comp distorts the colours, so... yeah. Made with acrylics (white, black, burnt sienna) on canvas-textured paper.
The first one is a non-edited version (picture taken, nothing more), while the other went through the "auto levels" in Photoshop.
I still have a lot of practice to do, so I hope I'll get more time to paint in the future.

P.S.
In my next post I'll upload my uglyass drawings. I've figured that it's not good just showing the personal favorites and the practice drawings, to get a opinion on my skills you'll also have to see my bad ones. So from now on: no hiding of horrible! It will be laughed at!

And here they are. The drawings and doodles. Yes.
Also the ugly ones. The ugly ones that weren't destroyed, at least...

Yes, I know. Too many.
I'll try to make more updates with less art in them. Sounds like a plan.

The painting is just me using up paint. I was supposed to paint a glass, but I made the paper bulky because I added lots of water before starting the first layer of transparent colour. Didn't want to waste the paper or the paint I had squished out, so I went "WHEEEEEE!!!" with it.
Same colours as last time (burnt sienna, black and white).

MOAR ARTS
I haven't been able to draw as much as I'd like lately, because of school and work (and the Internet *coughcough*).
Still, here it is.

Tried caricatures-like things. Some of you might recognize Loomis 'Fun with a pencil' (and me making fun of myself and all other animé-artists). Yes. And 'sketchbook 43' have this cartoony-looking princessy thing that have an aura of a certain Conceptart-member. Whom I do not remember the name of right now... *SHOTSTABBEDMURDERED*
Sorry. Seriously, I'll edit this with the name when I remember. Sorrysorrysorry.
But you probably know who I mean, the one with the awesome cartoony drawings who works for game animation and make paperdoll-looking pictures... and kitties... and octopuses... STEPH LABERIS! That was it! Goddamn yes!

The rest is me trying to get comfortable with working on a larger scale (a3) with charcoal, and a painting. Jesus, what is it with me and those shitty paintings?

Just me and charcoal again... haven't drawn as much lately, work and school is killing me. I draw half an hour each morning, and doodle at school... not much more, sadly.
Luckily, the book I ordered have FINALLY arrived, I'm fetching it Tuesday... then it'll be anatomy study-time! I'll try getting studies of muscles and skeletal structure into my work and school schedule... Even though I've pretty much given up on ever getting into uni on my first try. XD''
I'll just work and draw during my gap year.